Acquisition · Biopharma manufacturing (cell therapy)
Fujifilm buys Atara's California T-cell therapy plant for $100 million
- Buyer
- Fujifilm (via Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies) (Tokyo)
- Target
- Atara Biotherapeutics' cell therapy plant, Thousand Oaks, California
- Value
- $100M
- Status
- Completed April 4, 2022. About 136 Atara employees moved to Fujifilm.
- Date
- 2022-01-26
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies agreed to buy the 90,000-square-foot cell therapy manufacturing plant of Atara Biotherapeutics in Thousand Oaks, California, for $100 million in cash. Fujifilm kept the plant's manufacturing and quality staff and agreed to make Atara's T-cell therapies under a supply deal of up to 10 years.
Why it matters
It added a dedicated cell therapy plant to Fujifilm's contract manufacturing network in a fast-growing field, and gave Atara cash to fund its operations.
The plant
The site, called ATOM, was qualified in 2018 and makes T-cell and CAR T immunotherapies. It was getting ready for commercial output of tab-cel, Atara's therapy for a rare lymphoma linked to Epstein-Barr virus, which Europe approved as Ebvallo in December 2022. It also made Atara's multiple sclerosis candidate ATA188 and its CAR T candidates.
About Atara
Atara was formed about ten years earlier by Amgen and the venture firm Kleiner Perkins. Its shares rose 8.8% in after-hours trading on news of the deal.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
